Simply Dreadful
by gun for a tongue
Summary: In which he tries to say goodbye and her heart breaks a little more.


**Author --- **moi

**Summary --- **in which he tries to say goodbye and her heart breaks a little more.

**Disclaimer --- **don't own anything.

**Author's note --- **all the brilliant people may notice a quote for one of my fav movies said by Clive Owen. Can you guess?

**Simply Dreadful **

The halls are filled with loud clatter as people say their farewells. A red headed girl hugs another girl whose blond hair is tied in braids. A boy kisses the cheek of a brown haired girl, who shyly smiles up at him.

Outside the commotion of the last day of school and the start of summer stands a lonely girl. She stands by her locker that is no longer the vibrant pink it once was. She stares longingly at a couple that walks by and then to a group of friends giggling and crying.

She is alone.

Her eyes downcast to her signature bright pink tote that can only hold her boy band posters that once decorated her locker, and shining lip gloss. She sighs once more before closing her locker with a dull thud.

She makes her way past the crowd and into a deserted hallway. She finds him standing against the wall, staring at a picture on the wall. Her eyes gravitate to the direction of his gaze and suddenly can't seem to look away. It's a candid photo of the winter musical.

Twinkle Town.

She remembers it like it was yesterday, the sting and burn of rejection. It was the first time in awhile that she sat in the crowd, gazing up. It was quite refreshing too as she watched a new pair move in sync with each other.

"Hi." He says without turning his head to look at her, she nods silently even though she knows he can't see her. He's still staring at the picture and she decides she needs to get to her car and pack. It's only a couple days before she finally leaves high school and ventures into a new pool of people.

Where she can be whoever she wants and not the icy loner she once was. She desperately craves for change and new people. She wants people who don't know her and who she once was. The honest truth is she stopped being that girl awhile ago.

She makes a move to pass him but his warm, rough hand reaches out and encircles her petite wrist. Her bracelet jingles on her arm as he maneuvers his hand to just touch bare skin and not cool metal.

She stares questionably up at him and then down at his hand. His cheeks turn a light rose color before he regains his posture and doesn't let go. He pleads with his eyes that burn a magnificent color.

"Don't go." It's whispered yet echoes loudly in the empty art wing of the cramped high school. Her mouth goes dry for a second as her newly bright eyes stare back into his with awe. She isn't sure how to answer his request.

"I can't," she mumbles back. She forgets his possessive hand on her wrist as they stare in silence. She waits for someone to come, anyone to, just so she can finally look away from him. She can't still be in fake love with this boy.

She just can't.

She pulls her wrist out gently and looks apologetic at him for a moment. Turning her head so he won't see the tears burning her eyes, he calls out. She tries to will her feet to move, to move away from him.

"Did you love me? Did you ever love me?"

She chokes back a sob after he asks his simply complex question. She can't handle this because she's leaving and he can't stop her. She turns around for the last time.

"No."

Her words are harsh and make his ears hurt because the whispered answer seems louder then ever. He looks away, blinking back tears before looking back at the teen beauty. He swallows his pride down because he wasn't expecting her to lie to him once more.

"Are you lying?"

"Yes."

She isn't sure when the stroke of honesty comes from but she owes him something truthful. Especially after all this years of torturing friendship and failed romances, she needs him to have this.

"I loved you too."

It hurts a bit when he says loved and not loves because she knows. She knows love is reserved for another girl with happy smiles and innocent brown eyes.

"I'm leaving tomorrow."

He looks up, startled. He always excepted her to leave the uninteresting state of New Mexico but tomorrow. It's too soon.

He isn't ready to say goodbye.

Not yet.

"So soon?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"Come on. I can't stay here. There's a whole entire world waiting for me." She says happily because she's been waiting for this since she said goodbye to him when they were only sixteen.

Now's she's the tender age of seventeen and ready to let go.

He knows when she finally realizes she isn't just some girl who used to live in New Mexico. She'll become something more and he'll just be a faded memory. The boy who only really saw her when it truly was too late.

He isn't ready for that reality.

"It's a big world out there."

She pauses as she makes her way to stand next to him. They stare long at the picture snapped backstage of the most critical time in high school.

The time when she realized there would always be someone better then her.

The time when he realizes he could be so much more than the basketball guy.

"I know."

"Are you ready?"

"Hell no."

They share a laugh because this might be the last of few. She turns to face him, leans forward so she can breathe in his clean boy scent. He takes in her fruity perfume he should've smelled before this last moment.

Then she does it.

She kisses him.

Softly and sweet, is all he can about the kiss. It ends too quickly and too much like a sisterly kiss but behind it is entrapped passion. He wishes this would be the time she let it all go but being her, she doesn't.

"Goodbye Troy." She coos in his ear.

"Bye Shar." His smooth voice breaks a little.

She smiles sadly and walks into the blinding New Mexico sun.

And symbolically out of his life.

_**FIN**_


End file.
